During the creation of each Pokemon generation, the developers at Game Freak come up with a lot of concepts that don’t end up making the final cut. Some of these features end up used in later generations, while others remain on the cutting room floor. We’ve gotten a glimpse at several cut concepts over the last few weeks, and the latest one was apparently considered for Pokemon Sun and Moon. According to the leak (which comes from Centro Leaks), the developers were looking into adding “Mini Pokemon,” which would have been smaller creatures that players would encounter in the Alola region.
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One of the most interesting things about Mini Pokemon is that players would not have actually been able to catch them. Instead, they could help out in battles, and follow the player in the overworld. In the overworld, they’d be able to help the player in various ways, such as finding items. There also was some planned interactivity with the Poke Finder, which was a photography option introduced in Sun and Moon (somewhat inspired by Pokemon Snap). Apparently, Mini Pokemon would help the player discover the Pokemon that could be photographed.
Since The Pokemon Company has largely avoided discussing the recent leaks, there’s no way of knowing why Mini Pokemon were cut from Pokemon Sun and Moon. However, there are some reasons we could potentially deduce. The idea of an entire subset of Pokemon that can’t be caught probably didn’t make sense in the grand scheme of the series. It’s also possible that adding Mini Pokemon might have clashed with the core storyline of Sun and Moon. That Pokemon generation largely focused on the Ultra Beasts, unique Pokemon that had come from different dimensions. Introducing Mini Pokemon and Ultra Beasts in the same generation might have seemed like too much. They also could have been deemed redundant since we already have Baby Pokemon like Pichu and Magby.
The most simple explanation is that The Pokemon Company couldn’t find a reason to justify the existence of Mini Pokemon. The concept sounds interesting, but not very fleshed out. That could be the fact that we’re only going off leaks, and there are additional details that haven’t been uncovered. However, it’s also possible Game Freak decided to put the idea on the back burner until it could come up with something a little deeper, and more enjoyable. In that regard, we could end up seeing Mini Pokemon show up at some point, but there’s no real way of knowing when or if it might happen.
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The next mainline game in the Pokemon franchise is Pokemon Legends: Z-A, which will come to Nintendo Switch in 2025. At this time, we don’t know when the next fully fledged Pokemon generation will be arriving, but it’s possible we could be waiting until sometime in 2026, around the 30th anniversary of the series.
Are you disappointed that the Mini Pokemon concept was scrapped? Do you think it would have made for an enjoyable feature? Share your thoughts with me directly on Twitter atย @Marcdachamp, on Bluesky atย @Marcdachamp, or on Instagram atย @Dachampgaming!
